THE TREATMENT OF MEN WITH A LEARNING-DISABILITY CONVICTED OF EXHIBITIONISM

This paper reviews work on the treatment of men convicted of exhibitio nism or indecent exposure. Recidivism is extremely high after treatmen ts, with true figures on recidivism unavailable until 4 years after co nviction. It is extremely difficult to control for treatment effects b ecause of the ethical issues surrounding withholding of treatment, but cognitive techniques provide a promising treatment approach. The pres ent study attempted to address all these issues for men with a learnin g disability. A cognitive treatment is presented and data are availabl e for at least 5 years after conviction. An AB design was used and tre atment effects were monitored carefully. Treatment dealt with the issu es of accepting that the offense took place, taking responsibility for the offense, accepting the intention of the offending behavior, victi m awareness, and behavior consistent with offending for four offenders . All the men responded to treatment, although one offender with only 1 year of probation responded less convincingly than others. Beliefs r elating to indecent exposure being fun or not causing harm to women se emed most open to alternation. The beliefs in which the perpetrator th ought that the victim shared responsibility for the offense and that w omen may take a long while to recover from such an incident, seemed th e most difficult to alter. Individual characteristics of the case exam ples are discussed in terms of these general trends.